Cushion spring



Sept. 30, 1958 H. w. STERNBERG CUSHION SPRING 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 26, 1955 INVENTOR.

/Z A wr fl/Jrzwvaz? ATTORNEY Sept. 30, 1958 H. w. STERNBERG 2,854,066

CUSHION SPRING Filed Sept. 26, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Th .5 /0 /0 /Z ALA r y f 2 4 INVENTOR. A aor fillJrfiP/vaim ATTORNEY United States Patent CUSHION SPRING Huot W. Stemberg, Bridgeport, Conn., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Nachman Corporation, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application September 26, 1955, Serial No. 536,545

4 Claims. (Cl. 155-179) The present invention relates to a spring construction particularly suitable for use in furniture and mattress construction. The spring construction includes a spring assembly which may be rolled for storage and transportation.

A spring construction for furniture or mattress construction should be resilient in a gradual manner. The appearance of the furniture or mattress is very important and the construction must be such that the fabric covering is filled out to its original contour after pressure on the spring has been removed so that there is no appearance of sagging or wrinkling of the cover.

By reason of the highly competitive market in furniture and mattress manufacture the profit range is necessarily quite limited, and the saleability of components in this field depends to a large extent upon the development of improved features not available in competitive components. The present construction is particularly suitable as a substitute for foam rubber constructions, and, of course, incorporates the inherent advantages of wire spring construction together with the improvements disclosed herein.

The present construction is an improvement over that shown in Owen Patent 2,480,158 issued August 30, 1949, and which concerns a spring having a main body'portion with integral extensions for coil springs of the main body. Difficulty has been had, in some cases, with this construction because the spring extensions may become reversed under pressure permitting the stufiing to enter the coils of the main body, also the extended coil must be made of the same gauge wire as the body coil. Additionally, the patented construction has been somewhat bulky and cumbersome in storage and transportation.

The present invention aims to overcome the foregoing diificulties and disadvantages of the prior art by providing a construction which may be stored and transported in compact unassembled form and readily assembled for use. Additionally, a construction is provided which permits the use of less expensive filler materials, yet produces a result better than that resulting from the use of a good grade filler material.

Another object of the invention is to provide a spring assembly wherein the outer spiral spring cannot be forced into the main body of the spring assembly.

Another object of the invention is to provide a spring construction which is simple and economical in manufacture, and effective and rugged in use.

In accordance with the invention, this is accomplished by providing a spring construction in two parts, a body or main spring assembly of coiled springs in a conventional construction, and a filler spring assembly which is placed thereover. The filler spring may be stored and transported in rolled form, either in a series of short lengths, or in a single length which may be separated into sections of the desired length. The assembly of the two parts is made in a manner so that there is no clear opening between the coil opening of the main spring and thefiller spring coil openings so that under pressure the 2 filler springs are prevented from becoming reversed and allowing stuifing material to become pushed into the coils of the main spring assembly.

The construction is advantageous in that the filler spring assembly may be used with body spring assemblies of practically any form, or alternatively the filler spring assembly may be used alone as a substitute, or partial substitute, for other filler materials, such as foam rubber, at a greatly reduced cost. It has been found that the spring assembly, when covered with felted cotton in the usual assembly has the desired same feeling as foam rubber.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and from the accompanying drawings which show by way of examples, embodiments of the invention.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a filler spring assembly in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a side view of the filler spring assembly partially rolled.

Figure 3 is a side view of the spring assembly.

Figure 4 is a plan view of a somewhat modified form of filler spring assembly in accordance with the invention.

Figure 5 is a side view of the spring assembly shown in Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a plan view of a spring construction in accordance with the invention showing the filler spring assembly in position with a main spring assembly.

Figure 7 is a side view of the assembly shown in Figure 6. I

Referring to the drawings there is shown in Figure 6 a top view of a spring construction 1 including a body or main spring assembly 2 and a filler spring unit 3.

The body or main spring assembly 1 may be fabricated in conventional manner with a plurality of double cone springs 4 arranged in rows and interconnected by tie wires 5 and secured by clips 6. -A frame 7 may be placed around the assembly to provide the desired shape and stiffening. Both ends of thedouble cone springs 4 may be secured in the same manner, or the lower and upper ends may be secured by different conventional constructions well-known in the art.

The filler spring assembly 3 shown in plan view in Figure 1 is made of a plurality of tapered coiled springs 10 fixedly attached to the wires 12 by clips 11, or by any other suitable means preventing rotation of the springs 10. The coiled springs 10 are made with a base diameter varying from one-half to about four inches,

preferably about three and one-half inches, and preferably of the same diameter as the upper ends of the cone springs 4. The springs 10 are formed with between one and three-quarters to three and one-quarter convolutions, preferably about two and one-quarter convolutions. The pitch of the springs 10 is quite fiat being about one-half inch per turn for the springs with a base diameter of two and one-quarter inches. Any suitable material may be used for the springs 10, preferably upholstery spring steel wire from .025 to .080, and preferably .0625 inch in diameter, and preferably of a somewhat lighter gauge than the coil springs with which the filler spring unit may be used. The top end of the spring 10 is free. By reason of the large diameter in proportion to the height of the spring a force at practically any angle with respect to the axis of the spring tends to compress the spring rather than to cause the spring to bend over, in any event the bending is so slight that there is no appreciable contact between the convolutions of the spring thus prograde and may be of any desired gauge from the prac- Patented Sept. 30, 1958- tical standpoint depending upon the stiffness required, or may be of the same gauge as the springs 10. The springs 10 are interconnected to the tie wires 12 by the clips 11 which are arrangedto clamp the lower convolutions of two-adjacent springs 10 witha tie wire 12. The springs 10 may be spaced along thetie wires IZas desired. The clips 11 firmly hold the springs in place in'a frictional engagement which may allow pivotable movement if forced. However, under normal usage'thereis no pivotable movement at the clips. Alternatively the tie wires 12 may be formed of twisted pairs as is well-known in the art.

-A somewhat modified embodiment of the filler spring assembly is shown in Figures 4- and in which thesame numerals are used to indicate the same parts. This-embodiment differs from the'emb'odiment shown in Figures 1-3 in that the tie wires 12 are omitted and the springs are attached together by clips 11.

The filler spring assemblies 3 are adapted to be roiled for ease in transportation and for compactness in storage. In Figure 2 a spring assembly 3 is shown in partially rolled condition. A center roll 14 which may be made of cardboard may be used 'to support the roll and a sheet of wrapping paper 15 is interposed between layers of the rolled spring assembly being rolled with the spring. It has been found that the rolling of the spring assembly is facilitated by placing the paper 15 on a surface and placing the spring assembly 2 thereon with the free ends of the spiral springs 10 against the paper. It should be noted that the springs 10 by reason of their spiral construction and few convolutions compress into the same plane as the tie wires 12 and a compact roll is provided.

Obviously, the filler spring assembly 3 may be made of any desired length, a plurality of short pieces being placed in the same roll, or the roll may be made of a single length which may be separated into lengths of the desired dimension by unclamping the clips 11. The assembly is particularly suitable for shipping in the rolled form because of the ability of the tapered springs to be compressed into a plane. By reason of the use of comparatively soft material in the springs the convolutions of the spiral springs readily conform to the radius of curvature of the roll without hazard of permanent deformation as often occurs in compacting spring assemblies for transportation in which the convolutions are of the same diameter and which thus slip somewhat while compacted resulting in a certain amount of distortion of the spring convolutions.

The filler spring assemblies 3 may be used separately as filler material and may be covered with cotton felt, rubberized hair, or foam rubber. Since the development of foam rubber many persons have become used to the feel of upholstery padded with foam rubber. The filler spring assembly may be covered with cotton felt and used instead of foam rubber, or may be used as a base filler so that a much thinner pad of foam rubber may be used to produce the same feel. Because the filler assembly has practically no deterioration with age, it may be used under conventional filling material and will automatically compensate for the permanent compression of the filling material which occurs with aging.

In assembling the filler spring unit 3 with the body or main spring assembly 1 two forms of assembly may be used. The filler spring unit 3 may be placed over the body spring 1 with the tie wires 12 positioned parallel to, .but offset from the tie wires 5, or alternatively, the spring assembly 3 may be placed with its tic wires 12 at right angles to the tie wires 5 of the main assembly 1. In either case it should be noted that upon the compression of the coiled springs 10 they are blocked from becoming reversed and entering between the convolutions of the cone springs 4. Further, by reason of the block ing of the reversal of the coiled springs 10 any felt or other stutfing which is placed over the filler springs is prevented from entering the convolutions of the double filler spring assembly may be 4 coned springs 4 where it might become jammed or damaged.

The spring assembly 3 may be merely placed in posi' tion over the main spring assembly 1 and held in position by the usual felt and fabric, or may be clamped by the use of clips, spiral tie wires, or other conventional fastening means. 7

In final assembly in furniture or mattress construction one or two layers of upholstery felt are placed over the assembled spring construction and an upholstery cover applied in the usual manner. The desired feel is obtained because of the correlative efiect obtained from the combination lateral movement and compression of the light springs 10 with the compression of the springs of the main spring. The short lengths of the springs 10 as compared to their diameters, and the use of a lighter gauge wire as compared to that used in the body or main spring assembly cooperate to provide the desired effect.

It is thus apparent' thatthe present invention provides a spring construction and a filler spring assembly 'of improved construction. The assembly of the body and filler springs maybe used as a unitary assembly, or the sold separately and incompact rolled form.

While the invention has been described and illustrated with reference to a specific embodiment thereof, it will be understood that other embodiments may be resorted to without departing from the invention. Therefore, the form of the invention set out above should be considered as illustrative and not as limiting the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A spring construction comprising a main spring as-- with their axes in rows, the tapered springs being 'of' lighter gauge wire as compared to that of the coiled springs, tie means interconnecting the tapered springs, the filler spring unit being positioned over the main spring assembly with the axes of the tapered springs staggered relative to the axes of the coiled springs and with upper convolutions of the coiled-springs disposed under the openings defined within the lower convolutions of the tapered springs, whereby upon compression of the spring construction the taperedsprings are blocked by the convolutions of the coiled springs and prevented from assuming a reversed taper and entering between the convolutions of the coiled springs.

2. A spring construction comprising a main spring assembly including a plurality of coiled springs with their axes arranged in rows, connecting means interconnecting the upper ends of thecoiled springs, and a filler spring unit including a plurality of rows of upwardly tapered springs arranged with their axes in rows, the tapered springs being of lighter gauge wire as compared to that of the coiled springs, tie wires interconnecting the taperedsprings, the spacing between the tie wires of the coiled springs and the tie wires of the tapered springs being approximately the same, the filler spring unit being positioned over the main spring assembly with the tie wires of the rows oftapered springs parallel to and staggered relative to the connecting means of the rows of coiled springs and with said connecting means of the coiled springs disposed under the openings defined within the lower convolutions of the tapered springs, whereby upon compression of the spring construction the tapered springs are blocked by the connecting means of the coiled springs and prevented from assuming a reversed taper.

3. Aspring construction comprising a main spring assembly including a plurality of coiled springs with their axes arranged in rows, tie wires interconnecting the upper ends of the coiled spring, and a filler spring unit including a plurality of rows of upwardly tapered springs arranged with their axes in rows, the tapered springs being of lighter gauge wire as compared to that of the coiled springs, tie wires interconnecting the tapered springs, the spacing between the tie wires of the coiled springs and the tie wires of the tapered springs being approximately the same, the tiller spring unit being positioned over the main spring assembly with the tie wires of the rows of tapered springs turned at right angles to the tie wires of the rows of coiled springs and with the tapered springs disposed generally in overlying alignment with the tie Wires of the coiled springs so as to be blocked by the tie wires of the coiled springs, said tapered springs thereby being prevented from assuming a reversed taper.

4. A spring construction, comprising a main spring assembly including a plurality of main coil springs arranged side-by-side in rows with means holding said main coil springs in assembled relation and a filler spring assembly disposed in overlying relation to and supported on said main spring assembly, said filler spring assembly comprising a plurality of fully flattenable upwardly tapered coil springs arranged side-by-side in adjacent parallel rows, said tapered coil springs having lower convolutions arranged generally in coplanar alignment and supported on said main spring assembly and means interconnecting said lower convolutions of said tapered coil springs, said main spring assembly having means disposed under the openings defined by said lower convolutions of said tapered springs so as to block compression of said tapered coil springs beyond a flattened condition and thereby prevent said tapered coil springs from assuming a reversed taper and from entering between the convolutions of said main coil springs.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 582,412 chase May 11, 1897 871,871 Hirschman Nov. 26, 1907 2,480,158 Owen Aug. 30, 1949 

